The Sun has finally weighed in with great righteousness on the matter of state censorship - albeit in characteristically colourful, boob-augmented fashion.

The paper has proclaimed its indignation over how the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been blocking internet traffic for our brave lads overseas through the time-honoured medium of titty. It trumpeted: "Page 3 girls yesterday launched a full frontal attack on Ministry of Defence killjoys — after they banned troops from looking at our beauties online."

For those unaware what Sun stunners might look like, the article was helpfully illustrated (NSFW) with five women dressed in military attire - from the waist down. An even more helpful text button on the main page invites readers to "enlarge".

Service personnel are not only barred from looking at Page 3 girls while on active service, but according to the Sun they are also barred from looking at such images on private laptops.

The problem is that the official MoD line appears to be a model of workplace rectitude - and it is not even directed at the Sun. In a statement to the Register yesterday, a spokeswoman said: "Members of the Armed Services can view the Sun website but access to sites or pages containing nudity is blocked across the MOD. The viewing of adult content is inappropriate in the working environment and has nothing to do with our core business of defence."

She went on to add that there was absolutely no bar on servicemen (or women) using their personal laptops to view this sort of material – subject to the obvious caveat that they should not be accessing anything illegal. Pin-ups are allowed in private areas – so long as other personnel do not object to the content.

She also wondered whether this was the second or third time the Sun had run this same story in the last few years.

We asked the Sun for comment: specifically, we were interested in whether this piece represented a Damascene conversion to the cause of personal liberty – or was just a good excuse for a few bazooka jokes.